In the third book of this fun, action-packed Highland trilogy, Victoria Roberts introduces her baddest bad boy yet.

Laird Alexander MacDonnell must choose between his duty orlosing his heart forever to the woman who betrayed him—his own wife.

Lady Sybella MacKenzie is forced to search for her clan's ancient seeing stone under the roof of her father's enemy. When she finds the precious artifact, will she choose the family who raised her, or will she stand with the man who has captured her soul?

So I haven’t read this author in quite some time, and yes there is some *banging head against wall* and probably causing damage, but honestly I am so ashamed it took me FOREVER to pick up this book..but thanks to Audible’s Romance Package, I was able to listen to this book, which this author has AMAZING narrators so I highly recommend listening to her books if you have the opportunity.

So this is book three of the trilogy, and I will say that you don’t need to read the books in order (since I have yet to pick up book two) however I will recommend you read book one before reading this one. Because we do see quite a bit of the couple from book one and there are details to this story that are discussed in this book, so I do feel it will make it easier if you just pick up book one (which is fantastic). So this story features enemies to lovers trope and an arranged marriage.

It starts out with Lady Sybella MacKenzie, which it begins (I am guessing when she is a teenager) and she finds herself trying to beat her “brother” and ends up almost drowning, and while recovering, she runs into a MacDonnell….and granted she was playing on their land and begs him not to call out a warning to his clan or it could mean war between their clans and so he grants her wish is she will kiss him because he wants her to “remember” her first kiss by the enemy clan. Yes, he is a bit of a rogue when he is younger. So skip ahead a few years. Alexander has become the new laird when his father passes away and leaves him one request “protect the sacred stone” which he has no idea what that means. Sybella’s father has arranged a marriage with Alexander, for a secret purpose but all Sybella knows is to gain his trust and find a hidden sacred stone that their clan needs and was once they’re’s and the MacDonnell’s stole it. At first, Sybella has her reservations, but she really has no choice, she knows what is expected of her. However, as she gets to know Alexander, she starts to see the goodness in him and how kind he can be and she hates deceiving him and as she starts to fall hard for her Highlander, she begins to put the clues together and seeing that what her father is asking of her…there is something he is hiding from her and she basically feels she is torn having to decide between her love for her family and the love she has for her husband. But what choice will our lovely heroine choose?

I truly had a blast with this book, and I am not saying its a perfect romance, because it’s not. Its definitely packed with some flaws, both our hero and heroine make mistakes. Our heroine doesn’t trust in our hero enough, and our hero draws to conclusions about Sybella even though he knows that there is more going on that what appears to be going on…but he is a highland laird and pride is his downfall at times. I did find it interesting to see how well they get on together. They do have some powerful chemistry, and the clan is very accepting of Sybella for the most part. I love how sweet and kind Sybella is, and she tries to delay her father’s plan as long as she can. But when her father draws her husband into a plan to destroy his enemy without his knowledge even though her father’s enemy is innocent of any wrongdoing, she knows that time is running out and she hatches her own plan but of course nothing goes as planned right?? And Sybella is tested and learns some truths about those she loves the most and I love what a fighter she becomes. Even though she learns it a bit too late I really loved her courage in standing up and defending those that need it.

The romance is, of course, the primary focus of the story, with this side evil plot of our heroine’s father and I felt like the love story was definitely the main point of the story. There is so much focus on their relationship and seeing the trust slowly form and I loved seeing that trust turn into love and then to be tested. It’s very easy to fall hard for this story because you become so invested in these characters and seeing them fight for their happy ending. A truly heartwarming and sexy Scottish love story that I received many warm fuzzies from….TRULY LOVELY!!

About Victoria Roberts

Award-winning author Victoria Roberts writes Scottish historical romances about kilted heroes and warriors from the past. She was the recipient of the 2013 RT Book Reviews Reviewers' Choice award for Best Medieval Historical Romance for X MARKS THE SCOT, as well as the 2014 BTS Book Reviews Red Carpet award for Best Historical and Best Book of the Year for MY HIGHLAND SPY.

Represented by Jill Marsal of the Marsal Lyon Literary Agency, Victoria is a member of Romance Writers of America, Celtic Hearts Romance Writers, several local chapters, in addition to being a contributing author to the online magazine CELTIC GUIDE.

Victoria resides in western Pennsylvania with her husband of twenty two years and their two beautiful children--not to mention one spoiled dog. When she's not plotting her next Scottish adventure, she's dragging her clan to every Scottish festival under the sun. Please visit Victoria at VictoriaRobertsAuthor.com.